Page 113 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1849 CAMPAIGN 111

him a messenger to inform him that he had occupied the gorge of Piediluco
and the ravine of Narni, to delay the possible arrival of French and Spanish
troops in the Terni valley.
Once rapidly crossed the ravine of Configni – a very dangerous place
because the road to Rieti, to the east, and the road to Civita Castellana, to
the west converged there - Garibaldi could consider his situation much
improved, despite the fact that Forbes informed him that Austrian troops
coming from Foligno had appeared in Spoleto; he could, in fact, manoeuvre
in a sort of narrow triangle enclosed among the ravines of Piediluco, Configni
and Narni, controlled by troops devoted to his cause.
After he arrived in Terni on the morning of the 8 th and joined his forces
with those of Forbes, Garibaldi reflected at length on which road to choose.
At that point, he saw his hope of inciting the populations to quickly rise up
in arms disappointed; the only possible thing was to reach any Adriatic port
and set sail for Venice. In short, he was going back to where he was when
events had called him to Rome.
But the Spanish blocked the way to the north through Abruzzi, and the
Austrians that through Marche. Only the road to Tuscany was still open,
through the centre of the peninsula, and Garibaldi decided to take that road,
but not without spreading the news that he planned to board some American
ships sailing in those days between Orbetello and Livorno; he hoped, in this
way, to lure the Austrians westwards and have his way clear to the Adriatic sea.
th
At 6pm on July 9 , he moved towards Cesi, and left some small detach-
ments to watch the ravines of Piediluco and Configni; from Cesi, on the night
th
of the 11 , he went to Todi, that because of its very good location, protected
by the Tiber at the front and by deep gullies on the sides, was the ideal place to
stop and wait for a large despatch of ammunitions that were arriving from
Terni. He left some cavalry detachments and patrols in all directions, towards
Foligno, Acquasparta, Bevagna, Orvieto, Perugia, to deceive the Austrians; and
it was mostly thanks to this shrewd use of the cavalry as reconnaissance and
scouting unit that Garibaldi’s legion could get out of that very difficult situa-
tion. The general put the same care in the security of the troops that were with
him, since his main concern was a possible surprise attack by his enemies,
which, could be fatal for an army picked up here and there and poorly mixed;
and therefore in all the stops that he made, he always looked for places that
could offer the best guarantees of protection against sudden attacks.